Twisted Sister Threatening to Sue Australian Politician for Re-Writing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’

Once again the issue of politicians using rock songs without consent of the authors has made headlines. Only this time it's not in the U.S., but Australia, where Clive Palmer has been using a re-written version of "We're Not Gonna Take It" in an ad without permission from Twisted Sister.

"No we do not endorse @PalmerUtdParty!" tweeted Dee Snider. "We are contacting our legal team to address this and if that doesn't work...I'll be down under in three weeks to deal with it myself!"

Guitarist Jay Jay French added, "Twisted Sister does not endorse Australian politician Clive Palmer, never heard of him and was never informed of Clive Palmer's use of a re-written version of our song Were Not Gonna Take It. We receive no money from its use and we are investigating how we can stop it."

Palmer, a mining magnate worth $600 million AUS, served in Australia's Parliament from 2013-2016 as the head of his self-named right-wing Palmer United Party. Although the party was deregistered in 2017, he changed its name to the United Australia Party last year.

As Blabbermouth reports, a sticking point with Snider is whether or not Palmer believes in a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion -- an approach he took with Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, because that's embedded in the song.

"Here's the bottom line...is he pro-choice?" he wrote. "All choices? If he ain't...he ain't down with Dee! 'We've got the right to choose and there ain't no way we'll lose it! This is our life this is our song!'"

Back in 2015, Snider, the author of the song, allowedDonald Trump to use "We're Not Gonna Take It" at his rallies, even though they didn't agree on many issues, due to the friendship forged when Snider was on Celebrity Apprentice. But after a month, when Trump refused to denounce white supremacists, Snider began re-thinking his decision. By the end of 2017, the frontman said that he could no longer be friends with the president.